U.S. Pat. No. 4,542,553 provides for a tool for cleaning gutters which has a singular rod like member to which is attached a plate adjacent to one end and a handle adjacent to the other, and which is so configured that the plate could be scraped along the trough of the gutter.
As stated in the specification for U.S. Pat. No. 4,542,553 the gutter cleaning tool has the rod which joins the scraping blade and handle together divided into two sections by a fold such that the rod itself is substantially perpendicular to the flat face of the scraping blade.
As can be seen from FIG. 1 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,542,553 the scraping blade or plate sits symmetrically below the interconnecting rod.
While such a tool for cleaning gutters may have had some applicability in 1985 this current design is deficient for a variety of reasons, now in the twenty first century.
Firstly, gutters are now supported and connected to the roof via a variety of internal brackets which would mean for the most part that the cleaning tool provided for in U.S. Pat. No. 4,542,553 would collide with these brackets making it difficult to scrape the cleaning tool along the length of the gutter. Or at least any scraping would in fact be interrupted providing inconvenience and trouble to the user.
Such difficulties are exasperated when a user is upon a ladder several metres up from ground level where safety and convenience would be paramount.
As the person skilled in the art would appreciate if the cleaning tool is only allowed to be scraped over very small sections of guttering to avoid these internal brackets which assist in fixing the gutters appropriately to the roof, the user will have to regularly climb up and down the ladder to move to the next portion.
The cleaning tool provided for in U.S. Pat. No. 4,542,553 when applied to modern day designed gutters would not allow a user to conveniently scrape long segments or lengths off gutters to remove the leaves, debris and the like.
Still further, as the rod is fixed to the blade in the central point of said blade, the user is unable to conveniently use the tool effectively, trouble free and conveniently in both hands. What this means is that the blade which connects to the cleaning tool rod in U.S. Pat. No. 4,542,553 if reversed, still has no ability for either cleaning tool per se to be used by the same preferred hand of the user when cleaning the gutter.
It would be most advantageous to be able to design a scraping blade such that it could be reversed or the like so that the cleaning tool could be used by the users preferred hand once positioned on the ladder to clean segments of the gutter both to the left and right side of the user.
This would be a significant advantage as the user once positioned on the ladder could clean a much longer length of guttering before the ladder position would need to be changed.
Hence there remains a need in the relevant field of cleaning gutters of a tool, apparatus and or kit that is more ergonomically designed to allow the cleaning head or blade of the cleaning tool to pass easily under the bracing such that a single cleaning action of a user can extend across a greater segment of length of the gutter.
Still further there is a requirement to still provide in this relevant field of technology an improved cleaning tool for gutters such that the blade which is responsible for collecting the leaves and the debris allows passage under these internal brackets of the gutter but also be designed to more specifically match the profile of common gutters of the twenty first century as well as allow simple removability of the blade or head for detachability and reversibility so that the cleaning tool can be used in the preferred hand of the user while positioned on the ladder irrespective of whether leaves and debris need to be scraped from either the left or the right side of the ladder.